Well, since VMware server went free (as in gratis) I decided to install and test some other distributions that I hadn't yet had a chance to play with. I decided Gentoo is one that I always wanted to try. Well, two days later I am on the last step of the Quick Install Guide. I started the "emerge gnome" this morning before going to work. I see it is still running and I am sure it will take all day. Hopefully it will be finished before I get home. :)

I started with the minimal network install CD image. Everything is done manually which is something I am very comfortable with and used to have to do back in the old days of Linux (before the distro). This is good for someone who wants to learn and understand Linux on a bit of a lower level. It certainly would not be for someone who just wants to do a quick install and just browse the internet. The only/biggest advantage to this distro that I can see up to this point is it is source based which means every package installed will be optimized to your system if you just have to get that last ounce of performance out of it.

Yeah that's true. It simplifies obtaining and compiling packages which would put it between something like a Linux from Scratch and a Debian. I also agree on the optimization time is probably not a good tradeoff in most situations.

I actually don't know yet. I saw it finished before I had to go to work but it still needs to be configured before I'll be able to start X. :) Hopefully tonight I'll get a chance to work on it a little more.

I gotta tell you. The more I play around with Gentoo the more I like it. I'm not saying it's better than anything else but it reminds me a little bit of Ubuntu in that is seems highly refined. It would be nice if they had a good selection of binary software repositories so you could get a system up quickly and then rebuild at some point in the future if you feel so inclined. I believe this is actually possible to some extent now in that there are some binary repositories out there however, I don't know as to whether they are kept up to date or if there are high speed mirrors. I also believe if you get the full install CD you might be able to do this but I need to do a little more investigating to be sure. Anyone who knows care to help me out? Thanks!

no matter how optimal it gets, 13 thousand minutes for installing a system is pathetic.

am i missing something?

Well yes you are missing a little something. It's 13 hundred minutes, not 13 thousand. That's just as bad though considering that's just for the base desktop environment (not the OS and not any apps). I would agree with the atrocious statement. :)